Jan 7, 2011

Canada, the capital of political correctness?

Free speechlessness

Sure. Their ski fields are great. “But” maintains James Allan in Quadrant Online, Australia, “Canada is also the capital of political correctness run rampant, to an extent few Australians would credit as plausible. You get the newspaper columnist Mark Steyn taken before various Canadian Human Rights tribunals not for the fact what he wrote was false but rather simply because people were offended. And then there’s the stand-up Canadian comedian taken before these same officious bureaucrats for hurting the feelings of a lesbian member of his audience.” To foreigners that’s the joke.

Ramadan-sensitive police

Still unconvinced? Canada too is home to both thought police and Ramadan-sensitive police (although it isn’t always easy to tell them apart). Recently, for example, the feminized cops have been apologizing to Ottawa Muslims for arresting them during Ramadan, a Muslim fasting period. (Seriously.) From the Vancouver Sun: “There is no reason for police to explain or apologize to the Muslim community when they arrest a Muslim, Siddiqui said. The notion that Muslims need special treatment or that their religious sensibilities need to be addressed is both patronizing and condescending, and effectively sets Muslims apart from other Canadians.”

Bedwetting adults

“In Canada especially, where hurt feelings are now specifically compensated in human rights law, taking offence looks like a growth industry,” explains the National Post’s Joseph Brean. “Tom Flanagan, a former aide to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, learned this recently when police investigated him for counselling CBC viewers to commit murder, after he quipped in a CBC interview that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be assassinated.” He concludes: “But

when the urge to complain is enabled and encouraged, and every humourless butt-inski has a global audience, the danger is that Canada becomes a nation of prudes....” Sad, really.

Overprotected students

Even the education system (if that’s the right term). In Canada Free Press, Dr. Tim Ball writes, “The concept of classifying results as negative is part of the practice of not allowing failure. Students are imbued with the idea that a negative result is a failure. For example, in universities they write research papers or carry out lab experiments. They only pursue positive results. For example, if they research a topic they will only consider evidence that supports their original hypothesis. Some will abandon a topic rather than consider the null hypothesis.” No wonder “climate science” is felt.